Hot-Button Comedy

Native Gardens

By Karen ZacaríasDirected by Blake RobisonCo-Production with Guthrie Theater

Location

Kreeger Theater

Runtime

90 minutes with no intermission

“Skillful comedy … Bright and witty and clever.”

— Cincinnati.com

Native Gardens is generously sponsored by Beth Newburger Schwartz.

Good fences make good neighbors … right? From the outrageous mind of playwright Karen Zacarías (Destiny of Desire) comes this hot new comedy about the clash of class and culture that pushes well-meaning neighbors over the edge. Tania, a very pregnant Ph.D. candidate, and Pablo, her rising attorney husband, move next door to Virginia and Frank, a deep-rooted D.C. couple with an impeccably trimmed backyard. But when a questionable fence line puts a prize-worthy garden in jeopardy, neighborly rivalry escalates into an all-out border dispute, challenging everyone’s notions of race, privilege and where to draw the line on good taste.

Cast

JACQUELINE CORREA

Tania Del Valle

DAN DOMINGUES

Pablo Del Valle

STEVE HENDRICKSON

Frank Butley

SALLY WINGERT

Virginia Butley

GUADALUPE CAMPOS

Supplemental Ensemble

OSCAR CEVILLE

Supplemental Ensemble

JAVIER DEL PILAR

Supplemental Ensemble

CHRISTOPHER RIOS

Supplemental Ensemble

JACQUELINE CORREA

Tania Del Valle

makes her Arena Stage debut. Regional theater credits include Confluence (The Guthrie); The Women of Padilla (Two River Theater); Macbeth (Arkansas Repertory); Hamlet and the national tour of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (The Acting Company); Macbeth (Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival); and On the Verge and Sonia Flew (Contemporary American Theater Festival). Film credits include The Dog Days. Jacqueline received her M.F.A. from the Professional Theater Training Program at University of Delaware.

DAN DOMINGUES

Pablo Del Valle

makes his Arena Stage debut. Off-Broadway credits include The Undertaking (BAM/Next Wave); Locusts Have No King (INTAR Theatre); Wild Goose Dreams, Fidelis, and The Great Immensity (The Public); The Jammer and The Cherry Orchard (Atlantic Theater Company); and To the Bone (Cherry Lane). Regional theater credits include The Guthrie, Goodman, NY Stage & Film, Hangar Theatre, Passage Theatre, Long Wharf, Kansas City Repertory, Studio Theatre, Portland Stage Company, Florida Stage, Pioneer Theater, George Street Playhouse and Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Film credits include Run All Night, In Stereo, Future ’38 and Suffer the Little Children, and TV credits include West 40s, The Blacklist, Law and Order and Royal Pains. Dan received his M.F.A. from the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University.

STEVE HENDRICKSON

Frank Butley

makes his Arena Stage debut. Regional theater credits include Cyrano de Bergerac (Folger Theatre); South Pacific, Harvey, The Falls, Antony and Cleopatra and Lysistrata (The Guthrie); 1776 (American Conservatory Theater); Murderers (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); A Christmas Carol (Syracuse Stage); Hay Fever (Pittsburgh Public Theater); The Matchmaker, and Both Your Houses(Asolo Repertory); An Enemy of the People (Barrington Stage); Mercy of a Storm, Blackbird, Crime and Punishment, and An Iliad (Chester Theatre); Romeo and Juliet(Chicago Shakespeare Theater); Compleat Female Stage Beauty (Old Globe); and Much Ado About Nothing, Waiting for Godot, and A Doll’s House (PlayMakers Repertory). Awards include 2013 Berkshire Eagle Best Actor Award, 2009 Ivey Award for Best Production and 2005 Ivey Award for Best Performance in Cyrano de Bergerac. He is the founder of Audio-Visceral Productions. www.audio-visceral.com

SALLY WINGERT

Virginia Butley

makes her Arena Stage debut. She performed in La Bête on Broadway and the West End. Regional theater credits include over 90 productions with The Guthrie; Tartuffe (McCarter Theatre/Yale Repertory); Paradise Lost(American Repertory Theater); Six Degrees of Separation, Sweeney Todd, Master Classand Cabaret (Theater Latté Da); Hir (Mixed Blood Theatre); The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, Rose and Woman Before a Glass (Minnesota Jewish Theatre); Sylvia and Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Jungle Theater); The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Theatre Pro Rata); Doubt and Vasa Lisa (Ten Thousand Things); Henry V (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); and Wit (Artistry), among others. Film credits include Brennan Vance’s The Missing Sun, North Country, Factotum, Grandfather’s Birthday (with Robert Prosky), Fargo, With or Without You, The Straight Story and Last Seen.

GUADALUPE CAMPOS

Supplemental Ensemble

is thrilled to be making her Arena Stage debut. D.C. credits include work with Arts on the Horizon, Olney Theatre Center and OTC’s National Players. Regionally, she has worked with North Dakota Shakespeare and Theatre Squared. Guadalupe holds and MFA in Drama from the University of Arkansas.

OSCAR CEVILLE

Supplemental Ensemble

was last seen at Arena Stage in Destiny of Desire. His D.C. credits include Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Anna in the Tropics and The Knight fromOlmedo (GALA Hispanic Theatre — company member for 10 years); Fear Eats the Soul (Scena Theatre), Goyescas (The In Series), Zorro (Constellation Theatre) and Host & Guest (Synetic Theatre).

JAVIER DEL PILAR

Supplemental Ensemble

makes his Arena Stage debut! D.C.-area credits include Ella Enchanted (Adventure Theatre MTC); A Christmas Carol and Three Musketeers (Chesapeake Shakespeare Company); Dogfight, Avenue Q and Spring Awakening (Red Branch Theatre Company); and The Taming of the Shrew (Pallas Theatre Collective). He can be seen next in Charlotte’s Web at Imagination Stage.

CHRISTOPHER RIOS

Supplemental Ensemble

is excited to make his Arena Stage debut! Chris toured with Imagination Stage as Esteban in Oyeme, the Beautiful. Other D.C. credits include performing as a super in WNO’s The Ring Cycle at the Kennedy Center. He is a performing arts instructor at Lopez Studios, Inc. Chris thanks his friends and family for their support.

Creative

BLAKE ROBISON

Director

KAREN ZACARÍAS

Playwright

JOSEPH TILFORD

Set Designer

KARA HARMON

Costume Designer

XAVIER PIERCE

Lighting Designer

SCOTT W. EDWARDS

Sound Designer

JANA LLYNN

Stage Manager

RACHAEL DANIELLE ALBERT

Assistant Stage Manager

ANITA MAYNARD-LOSH

Vocal Coach

GUTHRIE THEATER

Co-Production

BLAKE ROBISON

Director

is Artistic Director of Cincinnati Playhouse, one of the largest regional theaters in the Midwest, where he directed the world premiere of Native Gardens last season. He is thrilled to continue his collaboration with Karen Zacarías, having produced the world premiere of her hit comedy The Book Club Play and directed her adaptation of Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents at Round House Theatre, where he served as producing artistic director from 2005–2012. Other credits include productions at The Guthrie, Milwaukee Repertory, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Folger Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company and Vermont Stage. As an adaptor, he created successful stage productions of Jay Parini’s The Last Station and Alice McDermott’s Charming Billy.

KAREN ZACARÍAS

Playwright

was recently hailed by American Theatre magazine as one of the most produced playwrights in the U.S.A. Her Arena Stage world premieres include Legacy of Light, The Book Club Play and Destiny of Desire. Other plays include Mariela in the Desert, and The Sins of Sor Juana, and adaptations of Just Like Us, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent, Into the Beautiful North, Oliverio: A Brazilian Twist, Ella Enchanted: The Musical and others. She collaborated on the libretto for Sleepy Hollow and Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises for the Washington Ballet, and has written 10 TYA musicals with composer Deborah Wicks La Puma. Karen is one of the inaugural resident playwrights at Arena Stage, a core founder of the Latino Theatre Commons and founder of Young Playwrights’ Theater.

JOSEPH TILFORD

Set Designer

Off-Broadway credits include Sing Hallelujah and Around the World in 80 Days. Regional credits include Glass Menagerie (Denver Center); Night of the Iguana (Resident Ensemble Players); Pride and Prejudice, Native Gardens, One, Victoria Musica, Stone My Heart and Much Ado About Nothing (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Jar the Floor (The Old Globe); Twelfth Night, Ah, Wilderness! and The Lion in Winter (St. Louis Repertory); Black Star Line (Goodman); As You Like It (Chicago Shakespeare Theater); If We Are Women and The Last Adam(Syracuse Stage); and The Dayton Ballet and The Cincinnati Ballet. His design work has been exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial International Exhibit of Stage Design and in a solo retrospective exhibit for the 50th Anniversary of the United States Institute of Theatre Technology.

KARA HARMON

Costume Designer

Broadway credits include assistant costume designer for The Crucible, Magic Bird, First Date and Memphis. Regional theater credits include The Legend of Georgia McBride (Marin Theatre); The Mountaintop (Trinity Repertory); Barbecue (Geffen Playhouse); The Rape of Lucretia (Wolf Trap); Ethel and God of Carnage (Alliance Theatre); Seven Guitars (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Much Ado About Nothing and The Comedy of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare); Safehouse (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); Clybourne Park and The Trip to Bountiful(Hangar Theatre); Dot (Vineyard Theatre); and Seven Guitars and Broke-ology (The Juilliard School). TV credits include assistant costume designer on Netflix’s Daredevil and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Kara received her M.F.A. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. www.KaraHarmonDesign.com

XAVIER PIERCE

Lighting Designer

Off-Broadway credits include Yours Unfaithfully and A Day by the Sea (Mint Theatre). Regional credits include Smart People (Arena Stage); Harvey and Native Gardens (The Guthrie); Fences(California Shakespeare Theater, Long Wharf, McCarter Theatre); The Mountaintop (Playmakers Repertory, Triad Stage); Red and Common Enemy (Triad Stage); A Raisin in the Sun (Westport Country Playhouse); Two Trains Running(Two River Theatre, Arden Theatre Company); Intimate Apparel, Peter and the Starcatcher, Detroit ’67 and 4,000 Miles(Playmakers Repertory); Fly (Florida Studio Theatre); Shakespeare in Love (Oregon Shakespeare); and The Glass Menagerie (California Shakespeare Theater). National and international tour credits include Drumline Live! He received a Handy Award for Best Lighting, Thomas C. Fichandler Award for Excellence in Lighting, Marvin Sims Fellowship at the Kennedy Center and was an Allen Lee Hughes Lighting Design Fellow.

SCOTT W. EDWARDS

Sound Designer

theater credits include Nice Fish (American Repertory Theater, St. Ann’s Warehouse and West End); The Guthrie (120 productions since 1997); Seattle Repertory; San Jose Repertory; Children’s Theatre Company; Jungle Theater; Penumbra Theatre; Mixed Blood Theatre; Illusion Theater; Arizona Theatre Company; Ballet of the Dolls (founding member); Theater Mu; Eye of the Storm Theatre; Teatro Latino; and Minnesota Opera. Other credits include production manager and live sound engineer for A Prairie Home Companion. Awards include a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for The Kite Runner at San Jose Repertory, Star Tribune Outstanding Sound Designer for Pride and Prejudice and The Pirates of Penzance and a Helen Hayes Award nomination for You Can’t Take It With You at Arena Stage.

is thrilled to return to Arena Stage after working on A Raisin in the Sun, Watch on the Rhine, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End and The City of Conversation. New York credits include The Roads to Home (Primary Stages); Maize & Blue on Broadway and The Last Word (New York Musical Theatre Festival); and Howards End. Regional credits include Bright Star (pre-Broadway, the Kennedy Center); Souvenir (New London Barn Playhouse); Up Here, Ether Dome and Peer Gynt (La Jolla Playhouse); Rich Girl (The Old Globe); and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Stage 773). She is a founding member of Ubuntu Theater Project. Rachael received her M.F.A. from University of California, San Diego, and B.F.A. from University of Michigan. Proud AEA member.

ANITA MAYNARD-LOSH

Vocal Coach

is in her 14th season at Arena Stage. She directed the world premiere of Our War and served as associate director on several productions, including Carousel, Oliver! and Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End. Anita trained and taught at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, was on the faculty at Webster University in St. Louis, headed the theater department at the University of Alaska Southeast and was the associate artistic director of Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska. The Alaska native-inspired production of Macbeth that Anita conceived and directed was performed in English and Tlingit at the National Museum of the American Indian in D.C. Through Arena Stage’s devised theater program, Voices of Now, Anita has collaborated on creating and directing original plays with communities in India and Croatia.

GUTHRIE THEATER

Co-Production

was founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in 1963 and is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature and to cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Under Haj’s leadership, the Guthrie is guided by four core values: artistic excellence; community; diversity, equity and inclusion; and fiscal responsibility. The Guthrie produces a mix of classic and contemporary plays on three stages and continues to set a national standard for excellence in theatrical production and performance, serving nearly 400,000 patrons annually. In 2006, the Guthrie opened a new home, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Open to the public year-round, it houses three state-of-the-art stages, production facilities, classrooms, full-service restaurants and dramatic public lobbies. guthrietheater.org

Dan Domingues as Pablo Del Valle, Steve Hendrickson as Frank Butley and Sally Wingert as Virginia Butley in Native Gardens, running September 15-October 22, 2017 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Photo by Dan Norman for Guthrie Theater.

(L to R) Jacqueline Correa as Tania Del Valle and Dan Domingues as Pablo Del Valle in Native Gardens, running September 15-October 22, 2017 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Photo by Colin Hovde.

(L to R) Sally Wingert as Virginia Butley and Steve Hendrickson as Frank Butley in Native Gardens, running September 15-October 22, 2017 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Photo by Dan Norman for Guthrie Theater.